Re: D&D 5th Editon Discussion: 6th thread and counting

Originally Posted by PairO'Dice Lost

Also from the previous thread:
Regarding Channel Divinity, it's only a healing ability now, but its real use is as a hook for function calls later, similar to the way you could pick up extra Channel Divinity effects in 4e and to how Turn/Rebuke Undead powered [Divine] feats in 3e. I'd be surprised if alternate Channel Divinity options don't show up in the PHB right off the bat.

Well, some options are already present, both the sun and war domain get some kind of alteration to their channel divinity ability, which will be a great way to help make different types of clerics seem different. I hope they don't make a lot of other abilities use channel divinity uses other than the domain however, for the reason Seerow stated.

In Next, they seem to have a design goal that, for spellcasters at least, they would rather make a spell that does something or put rules for some kind of effect in a spell rather than make a new general rule or class ability, for example, see the counterspell spell. I kind of like this, it helps with the idea that you get to choose your own complexity(by class, feat, and ability selection), it also makes there less generic rules to learn. A shining example of this is the Turn Undead spell. Clerics cans till turn undead, but it's not a whole new ability with it's own rules. If a cleric is going to get some new function or ability, it should be a spell(or a domain). If you can't fit the ability in one of those camps, you probably should make a new class.

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